Two years after having her first MCT removed I found another lump on Brina, this time it's under her jaw. It's the size of a pea and hard, almost exactly like her first MCT on her back leg was.

I've scheduled a meeting with her oncologist, we go in this friday afternoon. I really hope it's not another MCT, because that would mean she needs another surgery and this would be her FIFTH one so far.

Ugh... Can this dog please get a break from all of this crap for once?? She's 10, she deserves to have a peaceful retirement.

Brina has been healthy otherwise, apart from an occasional grass allergy, she's been doing great. A new clinic opened near me a couple of weeks ago and they had a discount on preventative kidney check up so I went with Brina and her kidneys are perfectly healthy, even her incontinence has been gone for the last couple of months (knocking on wood). She did catch a cold a week or two ago, but we've been treating it and it's getting better. She's in a decend shape health wise for a senior.

Now if only that lump would be a benign fatty lump and everything would be perfect...

We're back from the vet.. They have aspirated three lumps that I've been monitoring for a while now, the one on her chin being the biggest and most suspicious one. I don't have any results yet, they will call me tomorrow or on monday, as soon as they will know more.

Another bad news is that Brina has a rotten tooth which will have to get extracted at one point... Which means ANOTHER surgery. And they can't do both at the same time if any of the lumps will have to be removed. Awesome.

Oh and people around me keep telling me how "they wouldn't put an older dog through more surgeries" making me feel like crap for trying to do what's best for Brina.

Enigma wrote:Another bad news is that Brina has a rotten tooth which will have to get extracted at one point... Which means ANOTHER surgery. And they can't do both at the same time if any of the lumps will have to be removed. Awesome.

How come? That seems so odd.

Enigma wrote:Oh and people around me keep telling me how "they wouldn't put an older dog through more surgeries" making me feel like crap for trying to do what's best for Brina.

Well other people are not you and don't not have Brina as their dog. Maybe they don't care enough to do what's right for an older dog. They can suck it. You know her best, and I'm sure you'll always do whatever it takes for her to be healthy and happy.

As the oncologist explained to me, when you're cleaning and extracting teeth it's not safe to do any other surgeries, especially like the one Brina would need - removing a lump which is on her chin, because of bacteria in her mouth which can get everywhere. The surgery site can get infected easily so they prefer to do it in two seperate surgeries. I hope I explained it right, translating stuff like that is not easy

I will see what the results of those lump aspirations will be... If they are not MCTs or anything serious we will probably go ahead with teeth extraction. If lumps will have to be removed we will do that first and then do the teeth in a couple of months when she recovers fully.

I wouldn't listen to people telling you not to put her through surgeries at her age ... I put my cat, Gracie, through a full removal of ALL of her teeth at about 18 - it took us about 6 months after we adopted her to get the okay with the dental specialist - and then she went on to live until just a week shy of 21 years old. Her quality of life skyrocketed BECAUSE of the surgery and I never regretted it for a second.

You know Brina and you have to trust that you know what is best for her. *hugs*